Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Anxashe's wish was a beautiful one, but reality was cruel. The buer would not appear here, and our sole option was to get onto the ground and travel toward the Black King Base on foot. Old Du took out a rope from his suit and fastened one end around a pillar in the maze. After testing the firmness of the rope, he prepared to slide down to the ground.

"Canyue, I'll go first. You guys can follow after I confirm it's safe," said Old Du.

I agreed and reminded him repeatedly to be safe. He quickly slid down the rope, vanishing amid the red fog.

"Old Du, how is it looking down there?" I asked through the communicator.

"It's like hell down here. There is a blood pool here and severed limbs everywhere. The pool is not deep, only knee-length, but it's too murky to see through," reported Old Du. All of us inhaled in shock.

"Are you sure we're going into such a terrifying place?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Instead of flat ground, there's a blood pool down there. If the beasts attack when we're down there, we won't be able to escape in time," said Dodo anxiously.

"Old Du, do you see any traces of the variance sensor beasts?" I asked.

"Not at the moment, but the severed limbs in the pool seem to belong to the flying beasts and other beasts. However, I keep having a feeling that many eyes are looking at me," said Old Du nervously.

"If we're going, let's do it. The longer we wait, the more dangerous it will become. If we stay in the maze, we probably won't find a way out even after 100 years," urged Anxashe unhesitatingly.

I took everyone's suggestion into consideration and contemplated for one minute.

"Zhang Bao'er, Anxashe, Dodo, and I will go down first. After checking our surroundings, we'll come back for you guys. Dodo, after going down, keep trying to establish contact with the fleet," I ordered calmly.

"I'll go with you. There might be something I know on the surface," offered Temo, which was quite surprising.

Even the quarrelsome Zhang Bao'er looked grateful upon hearing the offer.

"Canyue, let me pick five Wargod soldiers to come with us. With them, we'll at least be able to help each other in case we encounter the variance sensor beasts," suggested Anxashe.

I nodded in agreement. We started moving while the others stayed behind to wait for our update. We slid down one after another in an orderly fashion. Before leaving, I gave Sarje, who was staying behind, a bunch of reminders. I then slid down the rope.

While sliding down, I could see the expansive maze covering the sky above me. A construct of this scope was something our minds struggled to grasp. Just what kind of prowess would one need to be able to build something so complicated?

Before long, I pierced through the red fog and landed in the blood pool described by Old Du. The air would most likely reek of blood. Although we were all breathing through our breathing devices, I could almost imagine the unpleasant smell when I looked at our surroundings.

The scene down here was even more vile than what I had imagined from Old Du's description. Countless severed limbs, corpses, and bones filled a seemingly boundless pool of blood.

Zhang Bao'er started complaining, "Damn these variance sensor beasts. Why can't they finish their meal? How can they stand living in such a terrible environment?" 

"Dodo, start recording our position because it will help us return later," I said to Dodo, who had already started trying to contact the fleet.

We then started wading through the knee-length blood pool, advancing carefully while avoiding the numerous corpses in it. Suddenly, I saw something moving rapidly on the surface of the pool. It was about 20 meters away, and it moved so rapidly it created numerous waves around it.

"Old Du," I hurriedly called out softly.

"I saw it. There's something there, but I don't know if it's a variance sensor beast," said Old Du.

"Temo, do the variance sensor beasts live in water? Do they need to get to the surface to breathe?" I asked.

"The variance sensor beast can easily adapt to many complicated environments. From what I can see, what you saw could very well be a variance sensor beast," said Temo.

"I have two questions," Dodo suddenly said.

"Just ask it. Don't drag it out," urged Zhang Bao'er.

"If this is the territory of the variance sensor beasts, why are there the remains of so many different beasts? Why had these beasts appeared in this territory? If that's really a variance sensor beast, why hasn't it attacked?" asked Dodo. Their questions were sharp and helpful.

"These remains belong to their food. In my opinion, there are two reasons these beasts were here. One, the variance sensor beasts had ambushed the patrols in the base's vicinity. Two, these beasts were intentionally tossed here to maintain the variance sensor beast's ferocity," said Temo.

"And why hasn't it attacked us?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Perhaps it is getting ready to attack," said Temo coldly.

Those words made us nervous. We gripped our weapons tighter and started looking around in alert. Oddly, the fast-moving life form only appeared for a bit before calm returned to the pool. No attack came.

"Who cares? If the variance sensor beasts dare to appear, I'll let them experience the prowess of my laser gun," said Zhang Bao'er, trying to encourage himself.

"Let's pick up the pace. Don't let a single beast trap us here," suggested Old Du.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

His words made a lot of sense. We started advancing rapidly. The blood pool was extremely big. In fact, the end of the pool wasn't even visible. We continued striding forth, trying to look for dry land. However, we remained surrounded by boundless red.

As we advanced, signs of activity appeared occasionally around us. But every time we tried to get a closer look, those creatures would vanish into the water, leaving only some ripples on the surface. Even more depressing was the fact that those ripples were increasing in number. From the initial one, the reappearing ripples had increased to over a dozen.

"Looks like we're approaching their lair. There are more and more beasts under the water," said Old Du.

I was still confused. "We could hear the roars of the variance sensor beasts in the maze. Why aren't we hearing any roars now that we're down here?" 

We continued advancing. Even after about an hour, we were still surrounded by boundless red. It wasn't looking like we were going to leave the blood pool anytime soon.

"Dodo, are we traveling in the right direction?" I asked.

"We're still heading toward the main base. But due to the pool, the journey of 10 hours has been delayed to 20 hours," said Dodo.

"Canyue, at this speed, we won't be able to return to get Sarje and the others after finding the base," said Old Du, voicing another of his worries.

I looked down and thought for a bit before saying calmly, "Dodo, notify Sarje to stay there and wait for us. We will contact Zhang Xingxing after reaching the Black King Base. They will come to pick Sarje and the others up with their ships. The only thing they need to do now is save their energy and wait."

Dodo quickly transmitted the message. For now, we no longer needed to worry about the others.

"Everyone, do not worry too much. Believe in yourself and advance. In 18 hours, we will get out of this place. For our hope, we will march non-stop at a consistent speed until we reach our destination," I said.

We continued slogging forth. After another half an hour, we found to our astonishment that the ripples around us were still increasing in number. Worryingly, the beasts were no longer disappearing after appearing. Instead, they started moving around right before our eyes.

"Canyue, I want to try attacking them. These weird monsters are too annoying to look at," said Zhang Bao'er.

"Take aim and open fire. I find them annoying too," I agreed without any hesitation.

With my approval, Zhang Bao'er raised his gun and opened fire at the beasts. In a few seconds, he unleashed dozens of shots. His attacks created a massive ruckus around us. Countless tailed black creatures were struck, and they jumped out of the water. I could clearly see the wounds on their bodies left by the gunshots.

Zhang Bao'er's attacks had evidently angered them. They constantly jumped around and gathered in large numbers. More of them were also appearing from farther away, slowly drawing near us. At one glance, there were hundreds of these black and bloodied bodies around us.

We also finally got a clear look at their appearance. Each of these beasts had an oval head, two rows of sharp fangs, and a black hole at the middle of the head, most likely a breathing organ. They also had a pair of small eyes that couldn't be clearly seen.

"Are these the so-called variance sensor beasts?" asked Zhang Bao'er the moment he got a clear look at them.

Temo was about to answer when terrifying roars rang out from the nearby fog.